Inside USC

Reggie Bush Joins Fox Sports

Fox Sports announced former USC tailback Reggie Bush has been hired for its pre-game show. He will be alongside Matt Leinart, Brady Quinn and Urban Meyer.

This is a perplexing hire for many reasons except one: Fox Sports worships former USC players.

What does Bush bring to the table? He is still banned from USC. He never showed any remorse. I just mentioned again two days ago how even last year Bush showed little remorse about how USC suffered from his actions before and during the NCAA investigation.

“The people at the university bailed on me,” Bush said. “Coaches bailed on me.”

Does Bush even have any insight for a college pre-game show? That is probably irrelevant because plenty of analysts on TV don’t offer insight.

Exactly what I was thinking about…he’s disengaged, as have apparently most of the former program greats (except that pesky athletic director and compensation trail sniffing predecessor)…but not forgotten…

James —-A million dollar line (and you were so confident of the thought expressed that you used as few words as possible—-classic).
I’ll say this about Scott —he’s the David Lynch of sports journalism: always able to find and (entertainingly) explore the dark underbelly of things (whether or not it exists).

Reggie did what he was supposed to do…turned down the sports agent…his parents were the ones that took the deals offered; living 2 counties away who knew what they were doing? who was in charge of Reggies parents finances? at SC? think about it…

I have said what you said for 10 years. Reggie’s parents should have been punished, not Reggie and USC. Do you think we are watching currently the parents of a kid from TX for example to make sure they are not on the take from a marketing guy? I think not. USC got hosed hugely and Nikias/Haden did not have the balls to fight the NCAA. What miserable cowards…

Reggie wasn’t as pure as the driven snow (and I’m not crazy about him saying that Pete and USC “failed” him) —-but he sure as hell didn’t deserve anywhere near what happened to him. You’re correctly placing blame where it lies —with his foster dad. The really crazy thing —which you also point out —is that lazy Haden and Co. didn’t challenge the NCAA in Federal Court. The moment the judge ordered reciprocal discovery, the case would have been settled by the NCAA —USC would not have lost 30 scholarships and we wouldn’t be where we are now. Looking back, Pat Haden couldn’t have caused USC more misery if he tried.

Tim —-I’m amazed more people couldn’t see the whole NCAA sanctions thing for what it was —an organized hit on the USC Football Dynasty. The NCAA had to invent —out of thin air —-an entirely new concept (institutional control) to punish USC for actions USC clearly didn’t endorse —-or, even, want: Reggie going pro!

actually I blame Nikias for wanting to be a coward and not fight and Haden for not standing up to him and doing the right thing. Yeah, Nikias was the boss but if Haden had said, “listen, we are going to fight this thing due to the injustice of it” what would Nikias have said? He could have fired Haden but he would have gone out the door as a hero to all USC fans and Nikias would have looked like a shmuck that he proved to be. Amazing the damage that a lack of real balls by two people and the incredible damage it caused.

M. L. — Haden showed us all plenty as a QB at USC. It pains me to see his legacy so tarnished. But —you’re 100% right: There came a moment early in his tenure where a little bit of guts would have prevented a ton of crap getting heaped on Trojan football. And you’re right again when you say that demanding USC put up a fight might have cost Haden his job. In today’s world doing the right thing always comes at great cost. As Captain Willard said in Apocalypse Now, “Never get off the boat —unless you’re prepared to go all the way.”
#HadenWasn’tPreparedToGoAllTheWay

Did anyone else ever have the impression that the failure to act was born of arrogance on the part of Haden? As in he assumed that he would get a certain type of treatment from the NCAA and only awakened late in the process to the realization that “they don’t care about me…this was driven by an agenda that I was too naive to fathom…I’ve been duped…I’ve failed…”

For all his strengths, Pat Haden wasn’t a litigator —he didn’t realize that you have to fight to get what you want from an institution that has screwed you over and said “now, what are ya going do about it?” He naively believed that his being extra nice in his written replies and public statements would persuade the NCAA to change their ruling. That’s what happens to lawyers who don’t fight cases inside courtrooms —-their expectations are based on their own dreamscapes. [But —you’re right again—once the NCAA said ‘shove it’ to nice boy Haden—he should have gone to war with them].

it was my understanding from someone who has been at USC for 30 years that Haden wanted to fight it but Nikias backed him down. He (Nikias) wanted to smooth everything over and sort of sweep it under the rug so it wouldn’t be in the way of his $ raising. Nikias doesn’t know a football from a hole in his ass and didn’t/doesn’t understand what an athletic heritage USC football was/is. He had no clue, and he still doesn’t. It gets down to Haden telling him what USC football means to everyone and having the balls to push him to the wall on it, especially since it was an unjust verdict by the NCAA. Haden might not be a litigator but I bet an courtroom wizard would have jumped at the chance to take on the NCAA on this case. Hell, I am not a lawyer but I would have taken it on 🙂

Yep. Whenever an institution conducts hearings in ways that are not only contrary to their own guidelines but violate due process, it’s time to take action. Particularly when the stakes are these —loss of national championship, forfeiture of hard won games and loss of 30 scholarships. In Haden —unfortunately—- we got a ‘go along to get along’ type at just the wrong moment in Trojan history.
#AndThenCameSwann!

TL, are you claiming Bush’s family, signed a contract with a sports agent, based on Reggie’s future NFL earning, to effect illegal monetary payments/loans to the family w/o Reggie’s knowledge?

Furthermore, TL, are you claiming that whenever Reggie visited his family in San Diego, living in a 50k a month pile, Reggie never questioned his mother and unemployed father how they paid their exorbitant monthly rent??

I’ve heard the wheels on Bush’s pimpmobile were worth north of 20K. Do you TL believe Reggie earned the wheel money at Wally’s Pizza on a typical hourly wage? – Not impossible, but extremely improbable.

Bush proudly sold Clown U FB out for money. TL, face it, there were many other different ways to effect discrete monetary help to the Bush Family w/o hosing Clown U.

Yes, this is why he’s the Rented Mule who deserves better than just constant beatings…a drink and a carrot on occasion…but now back to beatings…

Rented Mule, are you suggesting that what you describe differs in some way from the way that other programs, particularly in other conferences (and especially the SEC, the home of, among others, SCam Newton and the Family)? Do you wish us to believe that USC was engaged in some activity that was so uniquely heinous that it deserved such disparate treatment (a virtual football death sentence…well, not quite death, since there was still enough twitch in the corpse to win gimmes…ahem…and even a backdoor Rose Bowl…I know you don’t know about the Rose Bowl game, but is played in your home stadium…the other aspect of that…well, that should be sufficient)?

This would have resulted in the barest slap on the wrist for Sweeney, Saban, or Meyer…Meyer…Urban…hey, wait a minute – he’s available isn’t he? According to multiverse theory there must be at least one parallel universe in which he ends up our coach and rescues us from the jaws of HellSwannWan…

James — I was really trying hard to parade my slender humanity around today —-and I hate the fact your first paragraph had me laughing out loud (which I don’t do very often).
Owns is probably correct that Reggie was aware of some of the stuff that was going on —–but the stuff he was probably aware of wasn’t enough to punish the University the way the NCAA did [even their own, slanted findings don’t justify the sanctions they placed on USC]. Had USC forced them to explain how their hearing procedures meet minimal standards of due process it would have been a different story —but that ship has sailed.
As for the multiverse, I’m pretty sure that in one of the 52 other (mathematically possible) dimensions there is one in which Meyer is ALREADY our A. D. and head football coach —- Swann and Helton having had the common decency to run off together one day after our bowl-less
2018 season.

Gee thanks for the usual asshole way people with an agenda put words in other peoples mouths…your premise leading lack of logic and analysis are betraying you. I said they took the money aka free rental on a house in San Duego Co….he thought Reggie would later sign with him…Reggie never signed with him…is that what you wrote..NO!!! did you flunk reading comprehension? too?

Brady Quinn is the sharpest analyst of the four listed even including Meyer. Quinn is truly a quick study as a play unfolds and notes things that are predictors of its’ outcome. Unlike the rest, he’s also good at seeing precursors of plays as well as ‘counters’. Anytime he has been either in an interview or a play-by-play he brings the viewer to understand the game far better.

I’m just spitballing here Jimmy, but I’m thinking when your crony shoves a gram size rock of Meth up your rectum your reading comprehension score plunges to zero? No pun intended Jimbo. It must be tough to read and play steam piston at the same time.

Personally, I don’t feel the blame for the Bush/Clown sanctions is all Bush’s fault; Bush just laid the fuse. It was Emperor Garrett that arrogantly lit Bush’s fuse and then did a pit bull/Leona Helmsley “little people” act on the NCAA’s investigation. Naturally, Nikias was too busy shaking down Clown U donors for Dollars to rescue the ugly situation from Garrett’s egregious mismanagement.

Of course, Jimmy had you been in charge, plus a large rock up your kazoo things, vis a vis the NCAA, would’ve been different – Yimmy got hindsight.

My poor Rented Mule…I’d no idea you would react with such violent psychosexual frustration over the reference to “back door Rose Bowl”…I would guess, however, that the MG in question (not the other half of the tolerant Trojan duo on this site, but your “Emperor Garrett”) would appreciate such high praise, even if misplaced (imputing such criminal cunning to him is akin to lauding W for the Patriot Act…while your munching on your carrots julienne, you can ponder on that…simpler than figuring out that whole informal, yet 100% foolproof – allusion intended – ban on game played in your home stadium)…hee-haw…

MG-Yes, I am with you and all other decent folks on that account…alas, irrelevance is among the most relevant of matters when it comes to our poor Rented Mule, surpassed perhaps only by his predilections for the illogical and irrational (perhaps “ir x 3” can be the code name he uses in his fantastical musings, given his other apparent obsessions)…his inability to control the outpourings of such a brilliantly deranged mind adds a defective Pez dispenser quality to Wolf’s (as opposed to the other MG’s) empire…